Tempest
by AriusGrey
Summary: A storm is on the horizon, and all will be caught up in it's change. Naruto would have never guessed he'd be the eye of that storm. Time-Travel. features father/ brother figure Naruto. Smart/ strong (not invincible) Naruto. Rating will probably go up in later chapters. Hopefully a bit different than the average time travel. Currently open to pairing recommendations.
1. Chapter I

_**Tempest**_

 **By Arius**

 **Note: So it's been a while since I wrote and I hope my readers give me a break on this as I get back into the hang of writing. I wanted to go ahead and give a forewarning (I'll eventually post it on my profile but you know how that goes, it'll get up there when it gets up there). Please do not flame my works. I am more than willing to accept advice, receive pointers over the things I may or missed, or request to add things. I am all for CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Not just criticism. The last time I wrote someone literally messaged me with a: "I thought this was going to be better. I didn't expect it to become a mary sue. I'm done. Hopefully you'll write better work next time." It was something that I really took hard. Please keep in mind that this is all FANfiction. Which means if it is something that wouldn't have happened in the Canon, it's okay. We're on here to have fun and create new worlds from already spun ones. Please do not flame the work that I worked hard on—I am telling you now that if you come at me rough I will return every verbal slap you send. In a nutshell: please don't piss me off over something I wrote and you CHOSE to read. Thank you.**

 **Disclaimer: Overall I own nothing. Everything that is familiar comes from the Naruto world and is owned by whoever owns Naruto (I'm sorry but I am entirely too lazy to google that). Just know that it doesn't belong to me. Otherwise I'd be on vacation somewhere warm and tropical with playful monkeys and umbrella drinks.**

Chapter I

Death.

It had always been an abstract thing, mostly because of his self-inflicted naiveté. It was something inevitably close in their line of work, but yet so far away. He had always purposed to be optimistic. To be the one in the group who kept the joy and balanced the ever increasing darkness of the crouching war that weighed on his team with his silliness. But now…

 _A wheeze managed to slip between his lips. The gurgle of bloodied lungs sounding ever ominous in the quiet._

But now he was alone at the base of a destroyed cave, his body broken, and completely blind. There was only darkness, and for a moment he wondered what was the purpose of all this. _What was the point of fighting?_ There had always seemed to be a reason, but on the edge of death was there really a point? Everyone lived and everyone died, why couldn't they be satisfied with the natural balance? Why were their killers and so much _death, unnecessary death_ if they were all going to die anyway?

 _He breathed in a sloppy amount of oxygen. The limited amount of air was beginning to gain moisture from an incoming storm, he could taste the charged moisture on the back of his tongue._

"Alone." The word slipped from between his lips on a sputtering exhale unbidden. It echoed lightly and he wondered if sockets without eyes could still cry. The burn from the salt answered him. Even worse than dying was dying alone. Being left behind to die so that his team mates might live.

He didn't regret it. He was having to repeat it over and over in his head, though he knew his heart was unconvinced. He _didn't_ regret it…but…"KAMI!"…it still hurt.

The sound of thunder above him was almost reminiscent of boulders being moved. He imagined, for a slim moment as his breathing began to slow, that someone had come back for him. It was a destructive hope, he knew, but it was one that bloomed for a moment anyway. He imagined the stones becoming lighter as the weights were removed. Imagined as more air seeped into the cavities. Imagined warm hands combing through his hair and telling him he was safe now.

He didn't imagine the slap to the face.

"Hey kid, you still alive?!" The voice was male and the chakra slightly familiar in its brightness but overall the sudden appearance had his body stiffening. Which was painful.

A cry escaped and echoed off what sounded like a greater space then he remembered. Either the stranger really had dug him out or there was another part of the cave he hadn't known.

"Yep. Still alive." He felt a hand hover over his face and gently close the eyelid that was still open. He hadn't even realized it was still open, a strange realization considering. He could only imagine how mangled he looked, how frightening his face was all bloody and eyeless.

But he wasn't alone anymore. Even if it was a stranger. Even if it was someone from the enemy who was left behind to make sure he was dead. He wasn't alone anymore. It was sad how comforting that was.

"Stay." He managed to rasp. The boulders sitting on top of him suddenly disappeared. He couldn't tell how, just that there was a fizzling sound and a release of weight on his chest. He breathed as deeply as he could past the blood in his lungs. It burned, but it was worth it.

"I'm not going anywhere, Kid." He felt a firm set of arms shift beneath his neck and his knees. Fear zipped through him, but the arms didn't do anything other than tighten.

"Alright, kid, I've got to move you. It's going to hurt, I won't lie. But just remember that the pain means you're still alive. Take a deep breath and brace yourself. Are you ready?" The voice was warm, but firm. Not unlike his sensei's. He did his best to prepare himself and gave a jerky nod.

The pain was a mix of aches and strikes of electricity, it burst in his mind with, what he imagined as, white light if his eyes could reflect it on the back of his eyelids. He took deep, quick breaths and grit his teeth.

The stranger was right, though. The pain reminded him that he was still alive. A bit of a shock to his system that cleared the haze that was creeping in at the edges.

The stranger's movements were subtle and precise. He could feel the way the wind lifted beneath them as the man leapt, the rushing sound of trees as they flew by, and the non-existent sound of movement as they traveled. _I was right. He's a ninja. Probably taking me back to camp for interrogation._

And just like that all the hope he had built vanished. Evaporated on the wind and he did his best to hold back the flood of tears that wanted to escape with the impact of helplessness. Bet that prick Kakashi would laugh at him if he was here. Call him a cry baby again.

 _He'd rather die._

They were going to torture him for information and kill him anyway. He'd rather go out strong, rather than whimpering. He would never betray Konoha. Never betray his team.

So he began the painful process of biting through his own tongue.

He could feel the way the soft muscle slowly gave way to tendons and nerves, his teeth grazing over taste buds that were quickly losing their feeling.

He kept his lips tight so the blood wouldn't seep out and inform his captor. He'd never judge another war scared ninja again. To know the agony of fighting to protect your village, to know you're going to die but staying resolved enough to not give in to despair, to not give into betraying your people. He wanted to wail at the sky at the unfairness of it all. But this was his situation, he had always been the one who either adapted or forced a new way. He didn't have the strength to physically get away, but he could be strong now and not give in.

He'd protect his village and his team to his dying breath. He had already resolved to do that well before the hope had come and gone. It wouldn't change now.

He felt the stranger take a high leap before making a jarring landing and all that resolve of keeping his mouth closed slipped through his fingers like sand.

"AAAGH!" The pain increased sharp and quick with the stop, his lips releasing a scream without his permission.

"Kid, what are you doing!? Did you really just try to bite through your tongue?" The reminder sealed his lips again. If there was an afterlife he'd cry there, but he wouldn't do it here. Never again would he do it here.

The stranger sighed as he felt his body being set gently on the ground near a warm source he assumed was a fire.

"You know, kid, if I planned on killing you I would have left you there, buried underneath all that rock. And I promise on all that I hold sacred, that I don't plan on torturing you for information."

He could hear the sincerity in the stranger's voice, but he was past that. He was resolved to not let that crippling hope back in.

"Hmmm, well I see you are resolved to not believe me. That's okay. For this next part, it's better if you weren't awake anyway." He only had time to take a deep breath before he felt the pinch at his neck and his mind slipped into a dreamless sleep.

{***_***}

He had no idea how long he had been out for when he came to. All he knew was that he felt immensely better than he did before he was sent to sleep. As any good ninja, he didn't move at first. He simply laid there to get his barring, his senses expanding. The warmth of the fire he remembered had died down but it was still there. His body was covered in a sheet up to his chin and he was laying on what he assumed was a sleeping roll. His hands were loose and all of his weapons had been left on his person.

That was a reassuring sign if there ever was one. The only time a ninja left weapons on a fellow ninja was when they wanted to reassure them that they meant no harm.

The shifting of a body to his right made him hyper aware of the other person near him.

"Finally awake, kid? How are you feeling?" He felt a warm hand brush through his hair and move a few strands off of his face. The touch brought his attention to the feeling of bandages wrapped around his eyes, his hands shooting up out of reflex, his mind beginning to panic when he felt nothing when he touched the soft fabric. No pressure on his skin. No shifting of cloth over his eyelids. Nothing. Hands gripped his own and pulled them down, gently placing them on his stomach with a firm press.

"Relax. That area is still numb and will take a couple of hours for the feeling to come back. The nerves are still sensitive and needed to rest in order to heal properly. I managed to save one eye so you'll be able to use it, though I recommend you taking at least two weeks before you activate your kekkai genkai. As for the other eye…well…it was gone so I couldn't exactly heal what wasn't there. I'm assuming it was taken at some point. Perhaps because the other one was too damaged. As for the rest of your body, all of your bones are healed though there are several bruises that will take a bit of time to go away and your face is healed aside from a couple of long scars I was unable to restore. Though I was able to make them fade a good bit, so it's less disfiguring and more on the side of 'yes-I'm-a-badass!-Fear-me!'." The stranger paused for a moment with a chuckle.

"Now…back to my original question…how are you feeling?"

He sat for a moment and digested everything, smiling unconsciously at the 'badass' comment. Despite that, he was still doing his best to hold off that hope he had become wary of.

"I-I'm fine. Sore, but fine." His voice was raspy, but that choking gurgle of blood in his lungs was gone. He took a deep breath, enjoying the feeling of oxygen moving through his body. Even his fingertips tingled in pleasure.

"Good. I'm glad. I'll remove the bandages when the numbness is gone. I recommend that you take it easy for about five days. After that I'll walk you to the border of your village."

He shifted his head in surprise.

"Are you really gonna let me go?" He regretted it the moment his words processed in his mind.

"Of course I'm gonna let you go. Why would I keep a pipsqueak like you?"

"What's that supposed to mean!? I'm NOT a pipsqueak!" He was offended now. Didn't matter that the stranger had helped him. He didn't need another Kakashi around to insult him. The stranger simply laughed. The sound was warm and reassuring.

"Doesn't matter what I mean. All you need to know is that you're welcomed to go at any time. You can even get up and leave right now. I won't keep you. I just recommend you wait for a couple of days. That's what you want, right?"

He paused and nodded his head.

"Alright then. What's your name anyway, kid?"

"Obito." He managed to lift his body into a sitting position and tilt his head in the direction of the voice.

"Hmmm. Well I'm Naruto. Pleasure to meet you." He sensed the man move, grab something, and then shift back into position.

"It's important that you try to eat. It's nothing much, just a stew with a bit of wild herbs and rabbit meat. But it'll do you some good. And before you let your paranoia get away from you, it's not poisoned. Remember if I wanted you dead I wouldn't have wasted my energy trying to save you."

Obito felt the stranger…no…Naruto, push a bowl of the stew in his hands. He lifted it to his lips and let the warm broth flow into his mouth. It was true, it wasn't much, but considering how long ago it felt like since he ate it honestly tasted like the tip of heaven. One of the best meals he had ever had. A bottle of water replaced the bowl and he drink it down, the cool liquid washing the leftover taste of blood and rabbit meat from his mouth.

The camp was quiet for a while after that, the only sound was the soft brushing of a calligraphy pen against paper. He didn't know how long he was left to his thoughts, but it was enough to create a plan to leave in a couple of days. He was going to take a leap and trust this Naruto. The man had saved his life, fed him, and in a way was nursing him back to health. He owed him a chance if nothing else.

The quiet was disrupted when the sound of brushing ceased and the ruffling sound of fabric was heard. Obito believed Naruto did this on purpose to make him feel more at ease. No self-respecting Ninja would make so much noise when they moved unless it was on purpose.

"Alright, Obito. I believe that the numbness should be gone or nearly gone. We can remove the bandages now. Remember to not activate whatever kekkai genkai you have until the two week mark is over. You understand?" Obito nodded, silently wondering how the man knew that he had a kekkai genkai. The trail his thoughts were wondering down causing him to be increasingly more suspicious as the fabric was slowly unwound.

"You really should work on your nonverbal communication, kid. I can see what you're thinking. Literally! It's written all over your face. I know you have a kekkai genkai because I can sense the way your chakra is concentrated behind your eyes. The pattern of the flow is not exactly common, you know? I can't say specifically what kind it is, but if I had to take a guess I'd say you're an Uchiha. But that's mostly because I've seen enough of them to recognize the pattern of wild, spiky black hair and pale skin." His body had tensed when Uchiha fell from Naruto's lips so he knew he had given himself away. It didn't matter much anyway, though. The way he had said it made Obito believe that Naruto was just saying he was unsure. The man knew without a doubt what clan he belonged to.

The fabric fell away from his face and he slowly opened his eye. The colors were a little too bright, but not as bright as it could have been considering it was night. Interesting. He could have sworn it was morning. His time was off.

His eye was left tingling but his sight adjusted relatively quickly as he took a quick glance around camp.

Dying fire. Naturally round campsite. A couple of bushes and a border of tall trees, specifically Burgundy Belle and October Glory- trees that were known to border near the Land of Waterfalls. They weren't far from Kanabi bridge or the cave where the man had found him. That meant the border of Konoha wasn't too far either.

A cough brought back his attention and he turned his eye back to Naruto.

And gasped.

Cause he had never seen someone who looked so much like his sensei it wasn't even funny.

Spiky blond hair that was long enough to be pulled back at the base of his neck in a reminiscent style of Jeraiya of the Sannin. Sky blue eyes that were warm, but looked as though they could turn electric and cut through steel when angered. He looked slightly older than Minato-sensei, but only by maybe two or three years. He had no village head band or anything so it seemed as though he was not part of one. At least as far as he could tell currently. A strange set of scars set evenly on both cheeks that looked a bit like whiskers, giving the man a feral look as they curved around a strong jaw. He wore a pair of loose black pants that were wrapped at the bottom and tucked into a pair of well-worn boots. A fitted, long sleeve black shirt lay beneath a sleeveless, high collared grey trench-like jacket. A pair of grey gloves covered his hands, both of which reached half-way up his arms. The one on the right was your average fingerless glove with the metal guard on the knuckle, but the left one was strange in that it was full fingered, and from the angle he could see, had a strange blue metal covering the fingertips.

And on both of his exposed arms from the bicep down were sets of intricate seals drawn in silver and black ink.

"Now that you're done analyzing and mentally recording me," Obito jumped, but Naruto only laughed in response while placing his head on his hand and propping his elbow on a knee, "how about you tell me if you're still feeling any tingling in your eye or the skin around it."

Obito flushed, feeling suddenly embarrassed. This man made him feel like his sensei did, perhaps worse in a lot of ways considering this man seemed a bit more laid back then his sensei.

"Um…it feels slightly tingly and my eye is itchy, but not too bad." Naruto nodded.

"Good. The itching is to be expected, and the tingling will ease." The blond stood, dusting the dirt from his pants as he moved a bit to the left and picked up something near a mat with a calligraphy pen. He came back over and opened his hand to Obito.

"It's an eye patch to go over the missing one. The sealing on it will link with your nerves and act similarly to an eye." Noticing Obito's confused expression he went on, "what I mean is that this eye patch will allow you to see in the same way that your previous eye did. The only thing it won't do is sync with your kekkai genkai. Sorry Kid, but you only have one eye that will do that. You'll have to practice when your eye heals on how to balance being able to see regularly with one eye and with the kekkai genkai activated in the other simultaneously."

Obito sat stunned. He had never heard of sealing being able to do that before. He didn't think even Sensei had a seal that could do this.

 _He'd still be able to see. See as if he had two eyes._ He felt the familiar salt burn of tears wanting to spill, but he promised himself to never cry again so he held them back.

Naruto still saw this, though.

"Uh…you okay? Did you not want the eye-patch? Is it the fact it's an eye-patch? Scared of the way it'll make you look? I honestly think it'll make you look pretty badass actually."

Obito laughed though it was a bit hollow.

"No…it's just that…you've probably done more for me than anyone in my village ever has. And you don't even know me. You've saved my life. Fed me. Willing to take me back home. And you've made this for me. You didn't have to. Especially now during the war." Obito lifted his head suddenly and narrowed his eye up at the man.

"What do you really want, Naruto-san?" Naruto looked at him for a moment, a serious look overtaking his face. He huffed out a sigh before crossing his arms and gazing up at the stars.

"Tell me, Obito," Obito felt his back straighten at the amount of authority that laced the soft spoken tenor, the sound holding a quality that screamed leader in a way he hadn't heard from many before. "What is the point of war? What is the point of killing each other? Of hurting someone?"

He frowned, reminded of the thoughts that he had while still being trapped within the cave.

 _Death, unnecessary death…_

"I…I wish I knew. But I don't." Naruto looked at him then and smiled, the curve full of so much warmth it made his cheeks heat.

"Exactly. I knew someone long ago who told me about the cycle of hatred. The cycle involved you killing someone, and because that person was a human who had loved ones who would risk everything for them, someone would seek you out to take revenge for the death you caused. But then, because you too were a human with loved ones who would risk everything for you, someone would rise up and kill the one who killed you out of revenge. And the cycle would continue. A circle of hatred. A circle of constant death." Obito listened enraptured, his mind both loud and silent as he listened.

"You ask me what I want. I simply want peace. Though I don't believe it will be easy for one person or one generation, I do believe it can start with one person and grow with one generation. So me helping you was because I wanted to. Because I could. Because I found a kid clinging to life and it only took me reaching out a hand to help, so I did. It is me planting seeds of peace. Do you understand?"

He nodded. He understood, he did, but he wondered how such a view could keep you alive during these times. Especially when dealing with Ninjas.

"I understand. Are you saying that you don't fight? That you've never killed or won't kill? Do you just travel around being a Good Samaritan?" As nice as it sounded, it didn't seem realistic. And Obito _hated_ how his thoughts sounded. How much like _Kakashi_ he sounded.

"Oh no, I've killed. And I do still kill. But I try to live by a standard for myself to never kill needlessly. To never kill recklessly. To never start a battle without accepting the repercussions that may come with it. I never want to be the type of man, be it ninja or otherwise, that kills another human without acknowledging or accepting that it is a life I'm ending, another human who has dreams, goals, people who they love and people who love them. There is no such thing as a meaningless life, so there should be no such thing as a meaningless death."

Obito soaked that in. There wasn't really anything else he could do. He looked back over his time as a ninja, from his first kill to now and wondered when did the masked, nameless faces of enemy ninja he had faced and taken down become meaningless. And he had to accept the fact that at some point they did become exactly that: meaningless. Just another target. Another obstacle to take down.

He watched as Naruto stood up and stepped on the already dying embers of the fire, the slight glow going out instantly. The man began to swiftly move around the camp, rolling up another bed roll and a couple of small packs of equipment before tucking them into one of the silvery sealing arrays on his arm.

"What are you doing Naruto-san?" Naruto looked at him for a moment, obviously surprised at the lack of suspicion in his voice. He couldn't help it. With everything that happened, with all that Naruto had said and because he looked so much like Minato-sensei, he couldn't help not trusting him. At least a little bit.

"Well, if you've forgotten, there's a war going on and we're not too far from one of the battle sights. I would have taken you a bit further away to heal you but you were a bit of an emergency case and needed to be taken care of as soon as possible. Now that you are able to move, or at least walk, we need to get out of this area. We've been lucky so far and that's mostly because of the seals I've marked around camp," he pointed to the surrounding trees and Obito noted the small indentations of seals on the bark, "that has allowed us to go relatively unnoticed. I however do not want to count on how much longer that will last." He nodded and began to slowly get up, allowing his muscles to stretch and expand past the aches. His bones felt almost hollow, but he recognized the feeling of freshly mended bones. They would begin to feel more normal the more he moved.

He looked up at the sky again as he rolled the bedroll he had borrowed and passed it to the blond.

"Naruto-san, how long have we been here?"

"It's been about two days since I've brought you here."

"TWO DAYS!" That was crazy! He had been asleep for two days! He wondered about Rin and Kakashi. He knew they believed he was dead. Minato-sensei too. His whole village probably thought he was dead by now. He didn't think his clan would care too much, but his team…? They were his real family. Even that ass-hat Kakashi. The silver haired rule abiding ninja was more his unwanted brother than anyone in his clan besides Shisui and his baby cousin Itachi could claim to be.

Naruto only nodded while strapping a blue tinted sheath to his hip, the silver blade of a katana glinted slightly with the kanji for FUJIN, or wind God, as it was slipped in. Naruto then ran his fingers over another seal array on his left arm and pulled out what appeared to be bo staff. It was different though. Something Obito had honestly never seen before. The core, and that's the best way he could describe it, was blue tinted metal- the same kind on his left glove, and it was wrapped in a thick vine of red tinted wood. The wood curved off the tip of the metal into a spear like point and spiraled all the way down to the very end where it blended into a blunt tip with the metal. The remarkable thing about it though was every section, every millimeter of the staff, was carved with meticulous seal arrays. Some connected and some didn't. It was an amazing piece of craftsmanship.

"Wow…" It came out unconsciously as a whisper, but it was heard in the silence nonetheless.

Naruto looked up as he walked towards the center of the clearing and noticed where Obito's eye was.

"Like my staff, huh? Yup, I'm pretty proud of it myself. None like it anywhere. And there shouldn't be since I made it." Obito looked at him in surprised, but Naruto only smirked at him in response.

"Let me put this eye-patch on before I bring down the seals. It's better if you're at your best fighting ability before we begin moving." Obito nodded and hurried over, watching carefully as Naruto lifted the thick leather over his eye and attached around back. He tugged a bit to make sure it was comfortable before sending a steady stream of chakra into it. Obito could feel the slight tugging of something within the socket, he assumed were nerves, as they were gently attached with his own chakra before being directed into what felt like pathways within the leather tie. It took a moment, but eventually the light that was beginning to be perceived through the eye-patch began to clear. It truly felt like he had two eyes. Except one didn't blink.

"Like I said before it'll be a bit disconcerting for a while. You'll have to get use to not blinking with one eye and balancing it out with your kekkai genkai, but there are some really strong advantages, like still being able to see if sand or water is thrown in battle. Your immediate instinct is to blink, and one eye will, but the eye patch won't have to. When you wish to sleep all you'll have to do will be to release the chakra flow to it. Got it?" Obito nodded. "Alright now stand back and let me finish this."

What came after was something Obito had never seen any fuinjutsu master do. Something that made him realize that Naruto wasn't your run-of-the-mill ninja.

Naruto stood in the very middle of the clearing, his right hand gripping the staff in a way that was both loose and prepared, while his right hand lifted to hover in the air. Obito watched as the gloved hand with the metal on the fingertips curled til only the pointer finger was out and Naruto began drawing in the air. Drawing in the air with chakra. Drawing seals in the air with chakra. Each seal array he finished continued to hover as it linked with the seal array in a specific tree. He continued until he was surrounded by eight hovering seals, each one connected to a tree that formed a circle around the clearing. Using the same hand he formed a set of hand seals so fast that Obito was positive he wouldn't have been able to copy them even if his sharigan was out.

Each of the hovering seals connected, their connection also reflecting on the tree's seals as they connected til a visible border of blue and gold chakra around the clearing could be seen. Naruto made a couple of more hand seals and with a quiet "HA!" the seals released. The soft feeling of the released chakra lapped at his feet like ocean waves on the shore. It was warm and peaceful, strong and yet constant. It gave the sense that Naruto was a pillar of strength, fatherly in a way he had never experienced himself since his father had died when he was very young. Minato-Sensei came close, but not quite like this.

{***_***}

Naruto took a deep breath and let it out as he shifted into full alert mode. He allowed his body to become as still as possible as he sent his chakra out in order to sense any enemies near. There were very few who could hide from his sensing abilities and those unfortunate few were the last ones he wanted to be near him while he had a disabled kid following him, even if said kid was a ninja.

He looked over at Obito, observing the amazed expression on the kid's face as he shifted in the direction they would begin traveling.

He wasn't sure if saving Obito was the right thing to do. Well… he took that back. Saving Obito WAS the right thing to do, that's why he did it. He just wasn't sure if it was the best thing to do considering the future he had just changed. Changed irrevocably.

He had been in this time for three years. That first year he had stayed relatively quiet for…reasons. The other two were spent traveling and building up a network of contacts that could rival pervy-sages. He had planned out scenario after scenario and, though he was no Shikamaru, he had to admit he had outdone himself with the things he had done. He just hoped it would be enough.

He had tried to stay away from changing major events, only shifting small things that effected those events. But then he had saved Obito. And he didn't regret it. Not even a little bit because Obito had been him. He had been this dark haired kid with goggles hanging by a thread around his neck, this kid with scars running across one side of his face and a missing eye in the other, this kid who had dark circles beneath his eyes despite not realizing he had had nightmares for the last two nights that were loud enough that Naruto had to weave silencing seals amidst his already heavily laced ones.

This kid who had tried to bite through his own tongue in order to resist giving out anything during an interrogation and torture session and almost died because of it, choking on the blood that built up in his lungs.

He had never turned his back on someone he had seen himself in and he wouldn't start now. Besides, he owed it to the Obito he remembered. The Obito that had saved his life by giving up his own.

When he went down into the cave, listening as the Iwa nins came to finish the job of the cave-in and his father wiping out the last dredges, he knew Madara had been waiting down there as well. The man's chakra felt like a mix of resolve and focus, a choking miasma of hovering death. It was substantially weaker than he remembered, but that didn't mean the man wasn't still dangerous.

He had debated killing the man then. Just finishing it right there.

But that would have been _foolish_. Madara had never been the true enemy, it was the creature behind the puppet that he worried about. It was better to keep Madara alive. Rather the enemy you know than the one you don't. He knew how Madara worked, he could counteract that. But if Madara was dead, Zetsu would just find a new, unknown puppet to control. One he couldn't counteract.

He sighed at his thoughts as they moved through the brush at civilian walking pace. He didn't sense anyone yet, which was a good thing if the wincing face of Obito was anything to go by.

"Naruto-san? Where are we going?" The kid was softly huffing. He would just have to endure a bit longer.

"I need to go to the other side of the Land of wind to pick up something. Which means we're going to have to pass a little closer to the land of stone and Iwagakure than I would like. Once I get it, we'll pass around Suna and take you to the border of Konoha."

"Why pass around closer to the land of stone? Why not the land of fire?" The kid probably didn't mean the accusing tone he used, but it didn't stop the slight irritation Naruto felt.

"I'm passing through there because a few days ago the Iwa suffered a massive defeat around the Kanabi Bridge and have pulled back forces to regroup. Because of the victory, Konoha is on high patrol on the border of the land of fire." He scratched his head. "Listen kid, I hold by what I said before. You're welcome to head back whenever you want. Konoha is in that direction." He lifted his hand and pointed in a general direction towards his left. "I promise to help protect you til you either leave on your own or I take you back. But whatever decision you make will be just that: Your decision."

Obito eyed him with surprise. Naruto understood that too. Despite really raising himself, it was rare that he ever felt truly in control of the decisions that would affect his own life. It was a surprising high level of responsibility and heavy burden being able to make those decisions.

"Um…I think I'll travel with you a little longer. If you don't mind."

Naruto's face probably looked like that funny eye-smile one Kakashi-Sensei use to use.

"Of course you can, Kid! I don't mind." He chuckled softly at the grumbling that produced.

It was quiet for a couple of more hours as they moved slowly towards the other side of the Kanabi Bridge. They were far enough away that they didn't see the destruction, but the burning scent of wood and pyres of bodies as mass graves were given funerals permeated the air. It was heavy and oily, leaving both of them wondering if the smell would be permanent in the surrounding trees.

Naruto continued to keep an eye on the surroundings and another on Obito. The boy was pushing himself. And though there were times where pushing yourself was necessary, right now was not the time. Not when the kid was still healing. Naruto didn't want him to revert back, everything he did would have been for nothing then.

Sighing, Naruto bent down to one knee and watched as Obito paused, his breath huffing now, and raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Get on, Obito. You are still healing and you need to be in the best shape you can in case we do meet up with enemy ninja." He could see the indecision on the boy's face, his feet shuffling awkwardly.

Was he this irritating when he was a kid?

"Kid. You either get on my back or I carry you bridal style." He would have laughed at the eyebrow twitch that caused if the situation wouldn't have been made worse by it. If he laughed Obito wouldn't get on. He wouldn't have. Probably would have become more stubborn.

Obito wrapped his arms around Naruto's neck, tightening them to show his irritation but not so much to be seen as a threat. Naruto just shook his head as he used his left hand to hold Obito underneath his knees, his right hand still gripping his staff. Like this Naruto could move faster, and so with a running leap he jumped into the trees.

Obito's head lay on his shoulder, his face turned towards his neck. Soft puffs of air hit his neck in slow inhales and exhales, the kind of pattern that comes with sleep. He focused his senses outward again, believing the kid to be sleep, which is why he was surprised when he spoke.

"How did you heal me?" The kid must have been marinating on that thought for a while.

"A slightly tweaked rejuvenation and reversion seal. I drew an alignment seal between them using cardinal points between your shoulder blades, your forehead, and your feet and placed a balancing one on your stomach. The centering one will fade when your healing is complete. That'll be your sign that it's okay to use your chakra on a consistent basis again."

"Oh."

Naruto laughed.

"Kid, you have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" Obito grumbled something under his breath that sounded remarkably like a disrespectful "not really, old man."

"Old man, huh? This old man has your tired ass on his back a good twenty feet in the air and will drop you." He looked over his shoulder with a twitching brow, internally laughing at the bashful face that greeted him.

"I'll have you know I am a healthy twenty-five. There's still a long ways to go before I am old. I look forward to living that long." He felt Obito place his head back on his shoulder, breath evening out again as they continued on.

Naruto stopped suddenly, pressing his back against a tree, Obito tucked snugly in between. He took his left hand and ran it across a seal on his right bicep. He could feel the nature chakra seep out around them like a cocoon. They both watched, Obito stiffening behind, as a three man squad of Iwa nin ran out of the brush beneath them.

A woman, her face covered and brown hair held in a high pony tail, paused to look around. The other two, one male and the other unknown, stopped as well and watched her as she moved slowly in a circle. Naruto could feel as her sensory chakra brushed against him, but because of the nature chakra she'd sense no humans in the area. After a few moments, her intuition and her senses obviously battling if her frown was any indication, she finally gave the signal to clear out.

Naruto waited though. He could still feel them on the edges of the clearing, watching to see if her intuition was correct. He quietly created a clone which immediately hinged into a non-descript, black haired iwa nin and began running in the direction of Iwagakure. The watching iwa nin immediately followed but not urgently when they saw the attire.

Naruto waited a couple more minutes before continuing on, keeping his nature chakra seal activated. It would eventually empty and he'll have to refill when he had time, but it would keep any watching enemies off their trail for a while. Obito remained blessedly quiet the entire time.

{***_***}

Obito clung to the back of Naruto, partly out of tiredness and partly out of awe. He hadn't even sensed the enemy ninja, but Naruto had. He had protected them by using a seal (and he'd admit that his interest was severely peaked in fuinjutsu now) and releasing an energy that felt invigorating but also caused a cold sweat to break out all over his skin. The rushing air from moving through the trees was causing his chilly skin to create goose bumps.

Naruto was also able to create a kage bunshin without hand seals and without having to give directions. That was a show of familiarity with what Obito recognized as a kenjutsu due to that one time during training where Kakashi nearly put himself in the hospital by trying to create more than three. Sensei had not been pleased that day. Yet Naruto showed no tiredness, no slack in his movements, it was as if he used a simple c-rank technique on a whim. That meant the man who was carrying him was, at the very least, special-jounin or jounin level.

"Who are you?" He didn't really mean to say it, and it did come out as a whisper, but with his lips being right next to Naruto's ear it was unsurprising that the man heard him anyway. He was making a bad habit out of saying the first thing that came to his mind while with the man. That wasn't exactly abnormal for him, of course, but it wasn't the right situation for it.

"I told you. My name is Naruto. Are you feeling alright? You can take a nap, you know?"

He cleared his throat a little, hoping to ease away his embarrassment.

"No. I mean what is your last name? Do you have a clan? Why haven't I heard of you before? Do you belong to village? Things like that."

"Well…before I say anything, let me point out my dear Obito, that you have not given the answers to those questions for me."

"But you know my last name." He was a bit confused now.

"I guessed that and just like a good little shinobi, you neither confirmed nor denied my guesses."

Okay. That was true.

"Alright. My name is Uchiha Obito. I am, obviously, of the Uchiha clan. You haven't heard of me…yet…because I haven't really done anything…yet. But you will. One day. And I am also, obviously, from Konoha. Now your turn."

Naruto chuckled as he made a larger leap. The trees were beginning to thin. A sure sign that they were getting closer to the border between the far edge of the land of wind and the land of stone.

"My name...is Namikaze Naruto." If Obito had been running he would have stumbled and surely fallen on his face. "I do not have a clan that I know of. I grew up as an orphan. You haven't really heard of me before because I haven't really wanted anyone to have heard of me." Well that didn't sound ominous at all. "I don't belong to a village…currently. Um…I like ramen. I hate the five minutes it takes for ramen to cook, people who become traitors for selfish reasons, and when people believe that what's right to them is right to everyone. My dream…is to live a life that will help the next generation live happier and longer."

Obito listened avidly. Namikaze. It was a bit amazing. It was quite possible that he was riding on the back of an unknown relative to his sensei. Wow. A relative who had a similar background to Minato-sensei, though he was a bit more…mysterious. Naruto was interesting in that he would tell you simple things about himself like ramen and dreams, things that made you feel like he was a very open, honest, and simple person. But there were other things that were said that revealed that that was not necessarily true.

"What do you mean about not belonging to a village 'currently'?"

"Hmmm. Well, you see the only village that I would have claimed as my own was destroyed. Destroyed a while ago. It was a pile of rubble the last time I saw it. I'll never forget the way the sunset red like a sea of blood over the broken stones that were once homes and shops and community buildings. It is not something you can forget. Nor is it something that you necessarily want to forget. It's like the scar you get from something that should have taken your life but didn't. You can never forget it, and you never want to so you can prevent it from ever happening again in the future. The scar becomes a reminder."

"Oh." Obito tightened his arms, hoping he could share a bit of comfort with the man. A man that he was quickly coming to respect. He couldn't imagine losing Konoha. Konoha was home. And though he didn't always like it, it was the place he belonged, a place he was carving a niche for himself to fit in. He felt Naruto pat his arms in acceptance, a small thank you for the compassion.

"What about you, Obito? Do you have a dream?" He opened his mouth to shout "OF COURSE! I'm going to be Hokage!" Yet the sound quickly died in the back of his throat. It just no longer felt right to say. Oh he still wanted to be Hokage, but maybe it was more like an avenue to achieve a dream rather than the dream itself.

"I'm not sure anymore. I always wanted to be Hokage. But now…I just don't know." It was quiet for a moment, Obito observed that the trees had gotten even thinner, the dirt slowly turning from the grey found in the land of stone to the sandy one in The land of wind.

"Tell me why did you want to be Hokage before?" He thought about it, digging a bit deeper into his reasons than he normally did. His answer surprised even himself.

"Recognition. I'm…different than the other Uchiha's. I got my kekkai genkai late. So late that my clan believed I would never get it. That made me a failure to them. I have even over heard some of them say my parents should have killed me as an infant rather than live with the stain that I had brought on them and the entire clan. Outside of my clan it was even worse considering that my clan has a tendency towards superiority complexes and isolation. So the village itself didn't accept me because I was an Uchiha. But…I was not only an Uchiha, but I was an Uchiha who wasn't even accepted by the other Uchiha. I was an outcast. I saw the Hokage as this figure who held everyone's respect. I wanted that. I wanted that recognition. That acceptance. That love."

It hurt to acknowledge that. It hurt down into his very being. And it was true. All of it was true.

"And now? What has changed now?"

"I…I've begun to see the world is much bigger than Konoha. That I'm not the only one who is hurting or has been hurt in the world. I've begun to understand that we're all human, both allies and enemies, and we only doing the best we know to do. Even my clan…because of traditions and common mindsets they don't always see the bigger picture, they only see what they want to see. I want to break past that. I want to press through what they want to see and make them see what is there. And not just with my own clan but with everyone I meet."

"That's wise. Perception is the biggest reason of all wars. How a side perceives another is how they plan either peace or retaliation. Being able to lay out the truth for both sides is sometimes the best thing you can do. It's not a guarantee that it will help or stop the fighting, but at least you can say they know what their fighting for." Naruto had slipped back into what Obito had begun to call his 'command' voice.

"But beyond that, Obito, I wonder if you've noticed it yet?" He looked at Naruto's face with confusion, the angle he was looking showed only an unwavering focus and a hint of a smile.

"Notice what, Naruto-san?"

"Hmmm. Noticed that you no longer care about the way your clan sees you. No longer care about the way the village sees you. Your desire to become Hokage was an aspiration, but it wasn't something that held your resolve. It was something that depended on the way others perceived you. If you had gone back to your village as a war hero, with all those who had ever looked down on you changing the way they acted towards you, do you think that your desire to become Hokage would have shifted?"

He blinked and thought about that. He wondered if Naruto had a habit of making people feel like they've a revelation, struck by truth. He wondered if he could ever have that ability. But Naruto was right. Again. He honestly no longer cared about what the village or his clan had to say. It was…different. And to go back as a hero? With all the recognition he could ever want? He wouldn't have wanted to be Hokage as much. He would feel like he does now, except now it was less about the fact he had the recognition and more about the fact he no longer cared.

"You wouldn't have wanted to be Hokage. At least not as much, am I right?" Obito nodded slightly in agreement.

"Hokage was just an avenue to get what you wanted, it wasn't your real dream. Recognition and respect what your real dream. But now that you have found a stronger dream, one that isn't dependent on the way others act towards you, gaining recognition and respect no longer matter. Those things, in a way, have become just another avenue to accomplish your real dream. What you found, I'm assuming at the bottom of a collapsed cave, was your reason for living. Your resolve that you'll hold onto when faced with adversity. And when the time comes, it'll be the thing you're willing to die for. So flimsy things like recognition and respect no longer matter. Remember, those are things that come and go depending on how people perceive you. You can be a hero one minute and a pariah the next. Now that you've figured out your dream, your resolve, you can truly begin building upon who you want to be."

Obito gripped the fabric on Naruto's shoulders. He could literally feel, almost like a brick being moved into place, as his new dream settled and began to take root in his mind. It was different than before. It felt like a flame within his chest, something that was burning brighter with every word that Naruto spoke, and he wondered if this was the moment he truly became a ninja. Not when he graduated the academy. Not when he made his fist kill. But in this moment where his reason for living, his resolve for pressing forward was born.

His new dream glowed. He wanted to be able to break down barriers so there would be less fighting. Less warring. Less hurting. And to protect those he cared about with everything he had. He could do it. He could see himself doing it and the thought warmed him from the inside.

"How do you know all this?" He couldn't help it. There was just…something about the way Naruto spoke that said 'experience'. But it was even more than that. Something else he couldn't quite place or label that made what he said sound like golden law.

Naruto only huffed out a short laugh and gave a glance over his shoulder before leaping from the trees, his feet landing softly on the sandy ground.

"Perhaps I'll tell you one day."

The trees growing in this area were too skinny to continue jumping through them. They must have crossed the border a while ago, and there really wasn't too much worry about meeting any enemies out this way. Mostly because this land was considered unlivable due to the constant heat and soil that was too hard to plant. There wasn't even a name on a map for this area.

"So…how do I begin building up who I want to be now that I have this new dream?"

"Well, Obito, that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself. Everyone who finds their resolve goes about it differently because they are different people with different reasons. For example, I knew someone who realized their resolve moments before their death. They had lived their entire life trying to be seen as something more than they were labeled with that they overlooked the one person who didn't see them with that label. That same someone watched that special person die to save them, only for them to be betrayed because of decisions that same someone had made. As a last stand under a new resolve that someone used the last bit of their energy to defeat all of their enemies, only to land at my feet and beg that they be buried next to their special person. Despite how that someone lived, they have always stood in my memory as a person of respect because of the way they chose to live their last moments."

Obito thought about how close that could have been him. How tragic a story his might have been. To find your reason for living only to have your life taken away.

"I knew someone else who had been purposely broken to the point they no longer had an identity. They didn't know what being human was. What a friend was. Or when it was okay to smile or how to give a good compliment. Honestly. His first greeting to me was, "Nice to meet you, dickless." I didn't understand at the time, but he just didn't know. As he began to spend more time with me he wanted to know more about what a friend means. What it meant to be willing to lay down your life for someone. What it meant to put their life and happiness before your own. He spent his life breaking down the things he had learned and rebuilding with new things like how to hug, how to defend a friend with words, how to protect, and how to care. To this day he will always be one of my greatest friends. He defended me to his dying breath. He didn't have to, Kami knows I didn't want him to, but he did it anyway. Because that was his resolve."

He could feel the tears stinging his eyes again, though they didn't fall. That person reminded him a lot like Kakashi. The silver haired idiot had come a long way from the beginning of their team, but there was still some moments where you see how uncomfortable he was being out of what was familiar, like the time he was babysitting Shisui and asked Kakashi to watch the kid for a moment. He had never seen someone look so much like a fish out of water. It was hilarious to him at the time. But now, looking back, he realized it really wasn't that funny. It was actually sad. Because Kakashi was unfamiliar with family. Unfamiliar to the point that Obito wondered if Kakashi both feared and wanted it with every fiber of his being.

"And then there's me. The kid who never knew his father and grew up with a mother who just one day disappeared when he was about five or six years old. The kid who raised himself within a town who thought him less than trash, abused him, and often tried to kill him. The kid who pranked and pulled tricks to get just a little attention, cause even bad attention was attention. The kid that parents refused to let their children play with. The kid who was sabotaged left and right because no one wanted to see him achieve _anything._ The kid who taught himself to read, taught himself to write, taught himself –along with the few travelers here and there willing to release a few tips- sealing and sword fighting. I taught myself, for the most part, everything I know. I've only ever had one person that I'd call sensei and I can count the things he taught me on two hands." Naruto sighed. Obito could tell remembering some of these things weighed heavily on him.

"But through my travels I saw struggle. I saw pain. I saw myself in every starving face, in every kid huddled in a corner trying to keep warm, and in every orphan who watched other kids with their parents. Someone asked me once, "Do you have precious people?" I didn't understand what that meant at first. But they were asking me did I have people in my life who I was willing to give my all for, to lay down my life for, to live for. They were asking me had I found my resolve. At the time I hadn't. My dream wasn't unlike yours, to become someone of fame and respect to gain the recognition of all those who over looked me. It was when I saw that person, someone who had become precious to me, die for someone precious to them that I found my resolve. My resolve to do whatever I could to make sure my precious people lived long, happy lives. I never wanted to see someone I cared about suffer again. It wasn't an easy dream I took up. Nor was it one that I believed I'd always be able to accomplish, but I did my best. I do my best."

Obito listened, hearing himself within Naruto's words. What if it had been him who watched Rin die to save Kakashi? What would he have done? Would he have hated Kakashi? It wouldn't have been Kakashi's fault, of course, but would he have blamed him? In hating Kakashi, would he have been dismissing Rin's sacrifice, Rin's choice to follow her own resolve? He didn't know, and it hurt to imagine such things. He just hoped he would never see something like that.

The thought didn't rest well with him.

They paused in a rather large clearing, the bordering trees sparse and thin. Naruto sat him back on his feet, and lifted his left hand to write a new seal in the air. It was the Kanji for 'key-holder' and with a turn the air rippled like cloth, revealing a pathway that wasn't previously there. Naruto stepped through and motioned for him to follow. Stepping through revealed what can only be described as an oasis. A winding stone pathway led over a small creek with large fish, grass was growing in lush thickness all the way up to a small cottage. Obito watched as Naruto 'locked' the doorway behind him before leading the way up to the house.

He couldn't keep his eyes on one thing, his thoughts also running wild with a thousand questions. How did this get here? How was it no one had found it? Did Naruto make it? How is it kept hidden? As they walked, his eyes flitting everywhere, he noticed a small family of fox kits as they wrestled and yipped in the tall grass.

"Kenji!" They were close to the door before Naruto's voice rang.

An old man stepped out wearing a pair of loose white pants and green haori with no shoes. His hair was short and white, the wrinkles around his eyes so tight they barely opened. The most bizarre thing about him, though, was the peppered tail and ears sitting on the top of his head.

"It's about time you got back, Naruto. We were beginning to worry."

"It's good to see you too, Kenji. How are you?"

"Well you know me, I'm still kicking. I doubt I'll be going anywhere soon."

"And how was she?"

"She's your daughter, what do you think?"

Obito could feel his eyebrows rise.

"Daughter?"

Naruto looked back at him with a slight laugh. His face must really be showing his thoughts.

"DADDY!"

A little girl about three years of age with swinging blond pigtails came running out from behind the old man, her kimono a vibrant orange with red swirls scattered all over it. She was barefoot as she leapt up into the arms of her father, her cheeks flushed pink in excitement to see him. She had a long blond bang that hung in the middle of her forehead, a beauty mark on her cheek, and set of beautiful doe eyes that were blue, though a bit more green than her fathers'.

She'd grow up to be a bombshell: the nightmare of every father.

Though he wished silently, if only to himself, to be the fly on the wall whenever said boy tried to take out Namikaze Naruto's daughter.

"I've missed you, Amaya. Were you good for Old man Kenji?"

"UHUH! I was very good! I did everything he said and I didn't even pull his tail this time."

"That's very good, baby. He's already losing enough hair without you pulling more."


	2. Chapter II

_**Tempest**_

Arius Grey

Chapter II

Naruto stood in the kitchen of the cottage, the arched, dome-like ceiling providing an odd familial atmosphere as it formed a circular room bordered by kitchen necessities, a wall of random growing herb pots, and a four person bar. Amaya was busy sitting on a counter and regaling him with her many adventures while he attempted to pull together a meal for all of them. Obito was still in a bit of a state of shock, sitting on a bar stool across from him. Amaya, bless her heart she was absolutely his child, had yet to notice him, her focus entirely on Naruto and the mixing bowl in his hands.

"…and then Akane said that Ol' man want us ta' come in but we didn't wanna so we got Emi to tell Ol'man that we's was already in da house. Hiro said that Kado was gonna be more mad than Ol'man but Daisuke not care so we's went swimming and I caught this purple fish but then Kado found out we's wasn't in the house cause he was talking to my bedroom door for…um…" He watched as she put a finger to her chin in thought mode, a small dimple appearing from the frown, "twenty minos."

"Minutes. Twenty Minutes." He corrected.

"Uhuh. That. And then Kado come runnin' after us and I was scared but Daisuke took my fish and threw it at him and it hit his face." She burst into giggles, the kind that he couldn't help but smile at. "It twas really funny. But Kado was really mad and wouldn't talk to us no more. Ol'man was mad too and wouldn't let us have dinner. He made us apologize to Kado too. But guess what! Guess what!"

"What?"

She shook her head and motioned for him to come to her.

"No Daddy, it's a secret. You gotta let me tell you in your ear." He chuckled again before placing his mixing bowl on the counter and leaning in so her mouth was at his ear.

"Daisuke snuck out and brought back dinner for us. We's stay up and eat everything the Ol'man told us not to. We didn't feel well the next day but we played like we's okay so we not get in trouble again." Yup. Like father, like daughter. He was feeling suspiciously proud.

"WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT SNEAKING OUT?! Huh?" And also like him she was anything but subtle at this age. Her 'whispering' had been at the same pitch as normal talking. Old man Kenji walked in from around the corner, his eyebrow rose as he stared Amaya down with that knowing look old people get.

Amaya turned her wide-eyed gaze from Kenji to him, the silent request for him not to say anything practically screaming at him.

"Your secret is safe with me." He whispered. A kiss on the cheek was his reward.

Kenji cleared his throat.

"So Naruto, who's the stray you brought home?" Obito visibly bristled like an offended cat.

"Kenji, Amaya, this is Obito. Obito let me officially introduce you to Amaya, my daughter," he ruffled her hair, "and Old Man Kenji, one of the elders to the noble clan of the Fox Summons." Amaya had crawled across the counter until she was sitting in front of Obito, her hands gripping his cheeks and looking at him curiously. Kenji moved further into the kitchen, grumbling under his breath about not being old and addressing him with respect.

"Obito will be staying with us a while. He's healing from an incident and when he's ready I'll be taking him home. We'll rest here for two days before venturing back out."

"You're leaving again so soon?" Naruto observed the frown on Kenji's face. There was something a bit more to that question. He'd have to inquire more about it later. Amaya gazed at him with sad eyes.

"You're going away again, Daddy?" Naruto hated looking at her when she had that expression on her face. No one. NO ONE, Dammit! No one told him that your kids could look at you with a single expression and make you feel as though you've committed the gravest sin. Part of him was looking around to see if there was anything he could fix just so she'd smile again.

"Yeah, baby, Daddy's leaving again. But guess what?"

"What Daddy?" Her eyes were beginning to tear up and her voice warbled like a heart broken baby bird. _Hold it together, Naruto. Hold it together._

"You're going with me this time." Like a light, her expression turned from doom and gloom to sunshine.

"REALLY?!"

"Really Really."

"YAY!" Her hands clapped together in excitement. He smiled in relief before pouring the batter he had been mixing into a frying pan. Okonomiyaki was on the menu tonight.

"We'll be going to Suna. I thought you'd like to go see Komushi and Sasori." She nodded her head in excitement, blond pig tails swinging as she turned her attention back to Obito who had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout everything. His eyes kept shifting between everyone in the room, and Naruto wondered how long he'd be able to hold back the flood of questions he obviously had.

"You're a summon!" Not long at all it seemed.

Kenji, who had taken a seat on the stool next to Obito, looked at the boy. Naruto held back the snickers as the Old Man imitated the same freaky look that Yamato could give, the shivers running up Obito's frame told him the kid agreed with him about how freaky that look was.

"Perhaps."

"OKAY! MY BAD! SORRY FOR ASKING! IT WAS RUDE. I WON'T DO IT AGAIN!" Obito had made a full 180 degree turn to face the wall, his shoulders hunched and looking properly cowed.

"Give the kid a break, Old man. He's been through a lot recently." He flipped the okonomiyaki in the pan onto a plate, drizzled it with sauce and placed it in front of Amaya who greedily dug in. She paused when he nudged her, quietly telling her to eat with her mouth closed, before she nodded and resumed eating at a more polite pace. It was ironic really. He'd never really been taught etiquette. Not while growing up anyway. It came much later, when people began to care, but it wasn't something he understood while growing up. But…it was one more thing he could give her that he never had. Besides, her mother may just come back to haunt him if she saw him raising their daughter like _they_ had been raised.

He missed her. Amaru. He frowned before shaking his head, getting rid of those thoughts and moving back to the present.

"The old man is a summon, yes. This entire place is actually a small space created between the summon world and ours. Those who are part of the contract with me have easy access to this place, while only those I allow from our world can come in. It's a personal space that I've created specifically to have a home, but even more so to keep Amaya safe. Old man Kenji is a friend I respect and is also well honored in his clan. He volunteered to be caretaker for Amaya during times where I cannot. You follow so far?" The kid nodded.

"You'll be here for a couple of days so you may see those who come here on a regular. This place is open to all the foxes, but most will only come here on emergency. The most common you'll see is Kenji, who lives here, Kenji's daughter, Lady Kioko, and her husband, Lord Nobio. They have five kits that you will probably see more than any other besides Kenji: Kado, who is the oldest, Hiro, who is considered the voice of reason in that family, the twins, Akane and Daisuke (or as I call them Mischief and Chaos), and the ever sweet, Emi. They are the playmates of Amaya. The twins are also notorious pranksters, so you have been warned."

He smirked as Obito gained a rather playful look.

"I'm not worried. I can give as good as I get." Kenji groaned.

"Another one. You brought home another one, Naruto! I've got enough tricksters in my _own_ family, not to mention that menace you call a daughter. Now you have the audacity to bring home another. I'm tempted to quit and move back to the inner court. At least they respect me there."

"You were also- how'd you put it Old Man?-, "Bored beyond all tears and reason to the point of insanity" and quite ready to "beat the next simpering female and spineless male with the first thing I grab if I don't get out of this Kami forsaken court.""

Kenji coughed.

"Touché."

Naruto laughed as he placed another plate in front of both Obito and the Old man.

"Come now, Old man. Don't be like that. We love you. We appreciate you. We need you. From the bottom of my heart I promise we do." He placed a hand over his chest and attempted a convincing kicked puppy face.

He laughed internally as Kenji swayed, his face full of disgust.

"Please stop. I'm about to lose my appetite and I haven't even started eating." He coughed before grabbing the plate and standing up. "I'll be in the office…trying to finish this meal you concocted." His voice turned serious for a moment. "Naruto."

Naruto's attention was grabbed immediately.

"There are some things we need to discuss. Meet me in the office when you're finished." He nodded solemnly and watched as the old man glided down the hall and around a corner.

Shaking his head, he grabbed his own plate and sat down. Amaya was half-way done, but had chosen to pause and interrogate Obito. He listened half-heartedly to the inane babbles of "Why you have eye patch?" and "I can't wait for you to meet Kado! I don't think he's gonna like you." and "You look like an idiot."

That last one sounded suspiciously like her mother.

He drowned them out for a bit while slowly eating, not really tasting the food as it went down and letting his thoughts drift.

They were traveling to Suna in a few days. He had been debating on whether or not to take Amaya with them. She'd developed a bit of a little sister/ cousin type relationship with Sasori and Komuri the last time he had ventured into Suna.

His meeting with those two had been a story in and of itself.

He had been traveling with Amaya along the border between Suna and the Land of Rivers, having previously ventured into the Land of Waves with the goal of establishing both a collection of informants and investing in the local market with the hopes that the likes of Gato will never sink his hands into it. He'd created certain…measures to make sure he'd at least be informed of such a debacle. While traveling he'd sensed a skirmish and quickly summoned a guard for Amaya before running off to check what was going on.

It was a bit of an accident, really.

When he stumbled into the…well it wasn't a clearing so much as a grouping of thin trees and boulders, it was to the sight of a kid about to get his arm chopped off by a masked ninja with an Ame headband. Out of reflex he'd sent a wind sharpened Kunai into the neck of the attacking ninja. It drew the attention of the Ame ninja's comrades, who both turned from the fallen forms they had recently defeated to attack him. He'd used his staff then. The incoming bodies were severed in a single line from the shoulder of one to the hip of the other. It was a bloody end and he grimaced as he looked down at them.

He'd turned then and noticed the boy he'd saved looking at him in both awe and fear. He quickly put his hands up.

"I mean no harm. I was, honestly, just passing through and thought someone needed help. You alright, kid?"

The boy was wary but gave a slight nod before he crawled backwards, never taking his eyes off of Naruto, to check on his fallen comrades. They were still alive if the movement's of their chests were anything to suggest.

The rustling sound of clothing behind him drew his attention to Amaya riding on the neck of his summon, a tall kitsune with short, wild green hair and violet eyes by the name of Satoshi. Satoshi, who was old enough now according to kitsune culture to have gained his fully human form, walked in and looked the situation over quickly before deeming it safe enough to let Amaya down.

Blond pigtails swinging- and Kami he'd forever regret the times he played around with his 'Naruko' form-, Amaya ran past him and straight up to the nervous shinobi who was left guarding his team.

"You okay?" Big blue eyes full of innocence that no real ninja could fake broke the tension in the air.

He smiled up at her reassuringly, obviously not wanting to worry her. She was smart however and had turned to Naruto while pointing a stern finger at the sputtering boy.

"Daddy? Help?" He smiled at her before ruffling her bangs.

"Is that how you ask?"

She huffed before looking down shyly.

"Daddy, could you help him? Please?" He looked at the boy.

"Well you heard the princess. I _must_ help you now." He motioned for Satoshi to come near, who grabbed one fallen suna nin under each arm as if they weighed less than two loaves of bread.

"Can you walk?" The kid quickly nodded before standing, cradling his arm gingerly.

Naruto frowned, observing the angle the shoulder was set.

"Looks like your arm came out of joint." He grabbed the boys wrist gently and his shoulder firmly, sympathy brewing at the fear in the kid's eyes.

"This _will_ hurt, but it'll be alright. Just focus on me, I'm gonna count to three." The boy nodded his head frantically, trying to take deep breaths to prepare himself.

"Alright. Here we go. 1…" The audible click sound of bone on bone was heard.

"AHHHHH!" Tears pooled in the corner of the kids eyes while Naruto pulled a pack of bandages from a small kit he carried on him at all times and began making a sling.

"You said you would count to _three_!" Turning with a deadpan expression towards the kid he nodded sagely.

"Yes. Yes I did."

"You-You bastard." The kid practically choked he was seething so heavily.

"HEY! Watch your mouth around my daughter you little shit!" He laughed maniacally on the inside at the kid's dropped jaw. Classic.

"But-you just-wait-what!?"

"Listen kid." His voice had turned serious and he watched curiously as the boy immediately calmed, watching him with surprise.

"I didn't count all the way so you wouldn't tense your muscles and make it both more painful and harder to heal. The pain should already be receding a bit, right?" He watched the boy as he focused back on his arm, the kid nodding slightly in agreement.

"Good." He picked Amaya up and placed her on his shoulders. "Come on. I'm assuming you guys are from Suna. Best to get going if we want to get you there before nightfall." They quickly moved out, Naruto letting the kid dispose of the bodies when Amaya was out of sight and waiting for the kid to catch up.

The walk to the Suna gate had been relatively uneventful…aside from Amaya getting over her worry for the boy and beginning to make wild faces at him which only ticked the kid off. Naruto knew she was doing it on purpose cause every time the kid would get geared up to retaliate, Naruto would look over his shoulder and down his nose with the patented "Don't mess with my Daughter or I'll eat your liver" look. The boy would freeze in terror, eyes going so wide he could see the yellow specks amongst the green. He'd turn back around only to hear the nearly quiet cackle of his daughter.

During the walk he'd found out that the kid's name was Komushi. He hadn't made the connection at the time in reference to the kid's significance, not until they had reached the gates of Suna only to see a familiar, though young, red haired kid as he shuffled and wrung his hands in anxiety.

Komushi saw him and began waving.

"Hey! Sasori!" The now named Sasori nearly melted there in relief. Three masked ninja appeared then, two of which took the two indisposed ninja and one who was left to guide Komushi, and unfortunately them, to the office of the Kage.

A, thankfully, short meeting followed where Komushi explained the situation. He had never been so grateful to Amaya for being with him in all his life. He was sure her genuine innocence helped to keep her poor father out of the Suna Torture & Intelligence department.

With an assurance that they would be gone by the next morning they were let go.

What followed was an invitation to dinner by Sasori and, consequently, Komushi. They both thanked him for saving Komushi and Naruto repeatedly told them it was okay and he was happy he could help. The dinner was good, though nothing like he remembered from Konoha. Sasori had quickly built almost an older brother like bond with Amaya, who for some reason (he chose to ignore the possibility of it being the beginnings of her first crush) chose to listen to and hang off whatever the boy said. Sasori was surprisingly calm spirited, the voice of reason during the constant squabbling between Amaya and Komushi.

It was on the way to his home, Amaya asleep in his arms and Satoshi guarding his back silently as always, that he began to really digest the magnitude of the events that had happened.

Komushi had been Sasori's only friend, and his anchor to his village. In his original time, Komushi had his arm cut off in that skirmish which resulted in Sasori creating him a poison coated puppet arm which then led to him accidentally poisoning himself. But now…Komushi hadn't lost an arm and therefore wouldn't die from the poison. In the end that meant…

Sasori would continue to have his anchor to the village. His most precious person. He most likely wouldn't go off the deep in and begin to create human puppets in the hope of keeping them immortalized in some way.

He wouldn't be a part of Akatsuki.

At the time he had felt immense relief and joy at the knowledge that he might have just saved not just Sasori or Komushi, but all those who had suffered under Sasori's bloodlust. There was a reason he'd been known as Sasori of the red sand.

But now, sitting here in his kitchen and his mind retracing the thoughts he'd been having when debating on what to do with Madara while he was in the cave, he realized the situation was fifty-fifty.

On one hand he had saved Sasori (maybe. there was no guarantee) and all those who fell under his hands.

And on the other hand there was a need for ten members of the Akatsuki in order to activate the Gedo Mazo. If he had taken Sasori- and Tobi now that he thought about it- away, then there would be two others that Madara or Zetsu would need to replace. Two that he couldn't predict or plan for.

He wondered what Madara's next move would be…

{***_***}

Obito watched Naruto as the man's face took on the same expression that his Sensei held, all narrowed eyes and thin lips, when turning over complex questions or situations. His eyes had become slivers of electric blue, dangerously gleaming as he stared sightlessly at the wall of hanging herbs with one hand holding the last piece of food precariously with chopsticks in mid-air.

Amaya had fallen asleep curled up in his lap, head resting on his shoulder and even breathing tickling the small hairs at the back of his neck. She had talked his ear off and he finally figured out her method of pranking after the first round of squawking irritation she had caused. He wondered if Naruto knew just how smart his daughter was. Even if she was three, the girl had been strategic in her questions, and Obito had caught the gleam of intelligence that showed she knew exactly what she was doing. She was figuring out what exactly got under his skin. Was he sensitive about his eye? No. Would he be irritated that someone he didn't know wouldn't like him sight unseen? Okay…that was a maybe.

Did he hate being called an idiot? Yes. Yes he did. But by that time he had figured her out and was able to get around her rather cunning interrogation by responding with blasé statements.

"Why you have eyepatch?"

"Cause I'm awesome."

"I can't wait for you to meet Kado! I don't think he's gonna like you."

"Well if he finds you half as irritating as I do then I think we'll get along just fine."

"You look like an idiot."

"Takes one to know one."

What resulted was a respectful understanding between fellow pranksters.

Now, he was left sitting in the quiet with an empty plate before him and a rescuer who looked on the verge of setting the house-hold plants on fire with his gaze alone. He wondered what the man was thinking so deeply about, what could put such an expression on a laid back, powerful man like Naruto. And Obito _was_ becoming increasingly aware of the power that Naruto held. The bizarre, if not slightly scary, thing about it was he was sure he'd only seen a little bit of the man's capability. Naruto was smart. Regardless of how kind and generous he was, he was still a ninja. He wouldn't have shown him his worthwhile abilities unless he had to.

Which meant the things he did show him were the things said man considered common.

Which spoke volumes by itself.

Sighing he cleared his throat. Naruto coming back to himself like the ninja he was without batting an eyelash, the food going into his mouth as if he had never paused and his head tilted towards Obito signifying that he had the man's attention.

He wanted to ask if he was alright, if there was something wrong but he decided against it, opting instead to ask one of the questions that had been buzzing around in his head.

"How'd you create this place?" Naruto pursed his lips for a moment.

"That's a very good question. One that would take you having an in depth knowledge of seals, time and space, and the interaction between this realm and the summons realm to truly comprehend. I don't want you to misunderstand; though I had a large hand in making this place I didn't do it alone. To create something like this takes having an understanding of the things I said before and an incredibly strong relationship with the summons you have a contract with. I worked hard on building a strong and lasting partnership and friendship with the kitsune clan. They helped me create this place."

Obito nodded and sat back, his hands gripping Amaya in the same way he held onto Shisui when the kid was sleeping like this.

"Do-Do you think you could teach me? About seals I mean?" He looked up nervously watching as blond eyebrows rose in surprise.

"You're interested in learning seals?" The question only sounded curious so he gained a bit more courage to continue.

"Um. Well truthfully it's only been up til recently-," A knowing face made him flush, "okay… since I've been with you that I've been interested. I didn't know they were so versatile or that you could do so much with them. You saved my sight, healed me, kept us hidden from enemy ninja, and created this place. I can't help it. It's all really interesting."

Naruto nodded before standing and taking the plates to the sink. He motioned for Obito to follow him, silently lifting Amaya from Obito's arms. He was becoming increasingly nervous as they walked down a hallway, Naruto continuing in silence as he placed Amaya in her bed and showing Obito to another room he could sleep in. Obito walked in to the small room, noting the traditional bedroll and changing screen while catching sight of a slightly ajar door that led to what looked to be a bathroom.

"Are you sure you want me to teach you?" The sudden voice made Obito jump. He swore he'd never admit that he felt his heart leap, no matter who asked. "You plan to head back home soon, yet you're asking me to begin teaching you something that can take years to grasp an understanding of, let alone use in battle. Do you really know what you're asking?"

Obito paused. He hadn't really thought about going back to Konoha. Not since they had the conversation on the way back here that drew Obito's attention to thinking about his purpose, his goals, and his resolve.

 _What was he asking? Was he requesting to train under someone in a subject that was quickly becoming fascinating to him? Or was he asking to go back home? It seemed he couldn't have both._

"I don't know. I want to learn, but I also want to go home." Naruto nodded, his eyes understanding and without judgment.

"I'll tell you what. I'll teach you some fundamentals of fuinjustu between tomorrow and the time we take you back to Konoha. You can decide then what you want. At the very least you can figure out if you're really interested in the sealing arts or if it's a passing fancy. If you find you really like it, perhaps you can find someone to teach you more in Konoha. Alright?"

Obito nodded. That sounded reasonable. Naruto smiled before turning to leave, but Obito stopped him, something else having been weighing on his mind.

"Uh, Naruto-san…" The man turned back around with a humming sound in the back of his throat. "What did you mean earlier, when you were talking about the things you hate and you said 'people who become traitors for selfish reasons'? Wouldn't you hate traitors no matter what?" Naruto blinked before leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed and a thoughtful frown on his face.

"Well…let me give you an example. I knew two men who were traitors. One killed dozens of people from his village just cause he could. He felt that his village was stifling him, that it held nothing of value for him, and that the village itself didn't appreciate his genius. So he left with the goal of finding the secret to immortality, which was an avenue- like Hokage is for you- to his real dream: learning and mastering all ninjutsu."

Obito frowned while listening. It sounded like this man was the kinda of selfish that was familiar amongst missing nins, or at least the ones he had heard of. The ones who had gone rogue and taken as many lives as they could on the way.

"And then there's the second one. A man who loved his village more than any other. You could even call him an example of loyalty that not many could reach. His clan was plotting to overthrow the established government, the kage, of his village. The ultimate revolt. He was given a secret order to annihilate his entire clan for the safety of the village. When the order was issued…he obeyed. He killed all of them. Even his parents. The only one he couldn't kill was his little brother, who he loved. He left his brother alive and fled from his village, the same village who immediately labeled him a missing nin. He would later infiltrate a secret group that had targeted his village in order to keep his village safe. To keep his brother safe."

 _Wow._ That sounded like a man, a ninja, he could respect. He didn't know if he could do that. He hoped he never had to find out.

"Do you understand now, Obito, when I said I hate those who turned traitor for selfish reasons? It's more about knowing the difference between a true traitor and someone who holds the title of traitor, though they are secretly still loyal. It goes back to what we were talking about in regards to perspective and something you should keep in mind when chasing _your_ dream. There's a reason one of the ninja rules include "Look underneath the underneath." Most people are not as they seem. People are complex creatures with reasons upon reasons for why they do what they do. To be able to reveal truth, you'll have to learn how to look past those layers and pull them apart so others may share in that truth as well."

Obito nodded. He understood. It was heavy, and made him aware of just how hard the dream he'd resolved himself to truly was, but he understood. It was like looking at Kakashi. The silver haired chunin came off as standoffish, arrogant, and cocky. He seemed like he thought he knew everything and it made it truly hard for Obito to deal with him. But…looking at it differently with everything he knew about Kakashi he was beginning to understand him. Empathize with him. He wasn't standoffish; he just didn't know how to deal with people. Sometimes he really was arrogant, but that was mostly because he was trying to prove himself to people who constantly looked down on him because of his age. Not to mention the kettle of frogs that was Kakashi's Dad…he didn't even want to delve into _that_ , though it weighed on his heart none-the-less.

He watched as Naruto nodded and closed the door, his blond hair the last thing he saw before the room went dark. He'd admit that he was still amazed by the man. Aside from him being a Namikaze and looking so much like Minato-Sensei (and he wondered when he'd be brave enough to broach that topic), the man had a leadership quality about him that was similar to Sensei's but different at the same time. He'd admit he had learned a lot, even if it was just him asking questions, by just being in his presence for one day. And it had only been one day. The train of thought reminded him that he hadn't seen his team in going on three days.

He sighed as he laid down, his head sinking into the soft pillow. Would it be so bad to continue letting them think he was dead? To stay under Naruto's tutelage and train? To not be under the burden of being a ninja for the leaf village? He could admit to himself, if only to himself, that though Konoha was his home he was becoming weary of the war. He was sure all the leaf nin were weary of the war. He didn't want to go back only to be sent out again. What if he lost more than an eye this time? Granted, he had given this one up willingly, but that didn't change the fact that it was gone or that he'd have either lost the one he still had, maybe even be dead, if it wasn't for Naruto.

He'd think about it. He didn't want to be like the ninja in Naruto's story who turned traitor for selfish reasons. The thought burned. And he didn't want to leave his team, his family, to continue fighting a war alone. Not when he was alive. It was just so incredibly tempting to just walk away. At least for a little while…

His thoughts drifted him to sleep, his mind running and unknowingly guiding him into the first set of nightmares for the night. The pain of being crushed, the removal of his eye, and the suffocating despair of crouching death were hard things to forget.

{***_***}

Naruto leaned against the door frame of Obito's room after closing the door, a soft sigh escaping his leaps.

He hadn't really planned on this. Hadn't planned on Obito becoming interested in the sealing arts and requesting for him to teach him. He'd never actually considered taking on an apprentice before. Okay…maybe that was somewhat of a lie. He use to wonder what it would be like to lead his own team of young genin, grow them into strong ninja back before…everything had happened.

He hated thinking about back then. Those particular memories were labeled under the file name 'The Last Days' in his mind and he did his best to stay away from them.

He scratched his head before turning towards the office.

He'd let Obito make this decision for himself. He didn't agree with the kid turning his back on his village just for the chance to learn the sealing arts…even if said arts were awesome. But if the kid made the right choice rather than the easy one he'd see what he could do. Perhaps he could work something out with the Hokage to send the kid lessons or whatever. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

He wasn't exactly looking forward to being so close to Konoha to drop the kid off, let alone establishing a big enough relationship with the Hokage to apprentice one of his ninja. Konoha was the last place he wanted to be near at the moment. The very last. Oh, he knew he'd end up there eventually. It was kind of inevitable. But he was gonna drag out that length of time as long as he wisely could.

The double doors of the office came into sight as he rounded the corner. He slid one open and walked in, gently closing it behind him. Kenji sat against an open set of shoji doors at the far side of the office. The room was completely dark except for the moonlight and the glowing embers of the Old man's long pipe. Naruto sat beside him and looked out across the garden, watching as a breeze moved against the tall grass and listening to the sound of crickets.

"So you're leaving again?" A puff of smoke followed the question. Naruto watched as it formed a circle and then dissipated in the air.

"Yes." Kenji hummed and puffed out another ring.

"You're pushing yourself again." Naruto fisted his hands and held the breath he wanted to let out.

"Yeah. I know." Kenji turned a sharp, fox-like gaze on him.

"Do you? Do you really know?" The old man dumped the leftovers of his pipe into a tray at his side and began the meticulous process of refilling it again.

"Tell me Naruto, what were you doing before you found this kid? Why have Amaya and I not heard anything from you in two weeks?"

"I-I was in Kiri."

"Why?"

"I needed to find out if Madara had begun his control of the fourth mizukage and if so how long had it been going on. I needed to check in with my informants there and monitor the beginnings of the underground movement." He looked at Kenji, pleading for the kitsune to understand, but the old man merely lit his pipe and began smoking again, his gaze never wavering from in front of him.

"That's a noble cause, Naruto. But is it a good enough excuse to abandon her?"

That…that hurt.

"I haven't abandoned her!" Kenji responded with a decidedly unimpressed look.

"Not yet, no. But that's not to say that that isn't how she feels. Naruto we haven't seen you in two weeks. Before that it was a week and a-half. Before that it was nearly a month. Truth be told, you haven't seen Amaya for more than seven days in the last three months. Do you realize that?"

Naruto was silent, curling up till his chin rested on his knees. Kenji was the only one he knew of who could so easily make him feel like a child. Unfortunately, this scolding was for a good reason.

Kenji sighed.

"Naruto, a couple of days ago Amaya asked me was there a reason you didn't love her anymore, if there was something she had done and didn't know about. How was I supposed to answer that?"

Kami. Kami! He hadn't meant for his little girl to think that. He was doing so much…so much for her, but by doing so was he sacrificing her happiness?

A warm and firm hand landed on his shoulder.

"Naruto you need to fix this now before it's too late. It's good that you're taking her with you this time, but it's time for you to do more than that. It's time for you to become more stable, or at least as stable as a ninja can be. Amaya needs that. On top of that, you need it."

He frowned before catching Kenji's gaze.

"What do you mean?"

Another puff, this time an arrow shooting through a previous circle.

"What was it your friends told you before you came to this time?" Naruto coughed, his throat suddenly feeling sore and his eyes burning. He hated that the old man could so casually ask cutting questions. Hated that the old man was the only one who could make him answer.

"They told me that…that they'd rather not exist than exist in a world like the one I left. They told me to live regardless of what may happened, to not hold back or sacrifice my happiness if it meant they wouldn't exist."

"Hmmm. Exactly. They wanted you to be you. They knew you would try to change what you could so that what happened there won't happen here. But they also knew that you would drive yourself into the ground trying to fix everything while also making sure they came to exist within this timeline with happy lives. They didn't want that for you. That was, as you like to say, their resolve. They loved you that much. Are you going to spit on their sacrifice by doing the exact opposite?"

He could only shake his head, his throat too choked up to speak. He didn't want that.

"You have been working hard for the last three years, even if that first year while you took care of Amaya and built relationships with us was slow in comparison, you were still busy. I'm not telling you to take a break. That would be like telling a nail to stop being a nail. What I _am_ saying is that it's time you put down roots and build bonds stronger than the passing relationships and informants you've created in the last couple of years. I don't care if it's in Konoha, or Kiri, or Wave, or some samurai village in the land of metal. I just believe it's time you step out of the shadows."

"But…what about-"

"I know your fears Naruto. I know why you're afraid of going to Konoha."

Naruto sniffed out of reflex.

"I'm not afraid, I'm just being wise."

"No. You're afraid. Even if it's revealing itself as wisdom, it doesn't stop it from being a fear. An understandable fear but a fear none-the-less. The problem is you can't stop living because you're afraid…even if you're not necessarily afraid on your own behalf. That's not fair to you. That's not fair to her."

He nodded. The old man was right. He didn't like it…Kami knew he didn't like it. But it was true. He'd have to fix it. He'd figure it out. He had no choice if he wanted to be the Father Amaya needed, the Father she deserved. He'd give her nothing less.

"Good. Now…I've heard about some interesting things going on in Ame that-" The sound of a loud wail broke the silence. It was a sound that had become rather familiar to Naruto in the last two days. He leapt to his feet and headed towards the door before Kenji's firm voice gave him pause.

"Naruto." Kenji's lips were firm and his eyes unwavering. "Do not become something someone needs if you do not plan to be there." Naruto frowned, letting the words seep into his mind, before he nodded and left the office.

He got to Obito's room before Amaya woke from the sound, thankfully. The kid had become tangled up in his sheets, his skin clammy and breathing shallow while his hands rubbed incessantly at his eye and eye patch.

Before the kid could break out into another heart wrenching wail, Naruto placed both hands on either side of the kids head and used the technique Amaru had taught him. He let a sliver of his chakra seep into his palms, not letting it penetrate skin, but rather letting it wash across the kid's body in warm waves. It was a process that was used to help young ninja during their first experiences with killing intent. He bent his head close to the kids ear and began speaking random, positive words while keeping the constant waves of warm chakra rushing over the kids skin.

"Stars. Dancing. Light. Paper cranes. Sweet candies. Pranks." The words helped to penetrate the memory that was playing behind the eyelids and shift the mind into more pleasant dreams. It seemed to be working as he watched Obito's body stop shaking, his hands had become still, falling slowly at his sides. The kids breathing was evening out into soft puffs of air, and Naruto finally shut off his chakra when the agonized expression relaxed into what would hopefully be a peaceful nights rest.

He sat there in the silence of Obito's room (and he hoped the kid didn't wake up anytime soon cause that would just be awkward) thinking about Kenji's advice and his parting words. It was true that Naruto was smarter than he used to be and much more strategic, but, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Was he creating a connection with Obito that would make the kid dependent on him? If he was, it hadn't really been his intention. That didn't stop the fact that he knew he liked the kid, saw a lot of who he use to be in him, and an immense amount of potential.

Obito could honestly do anything or be anything- he had the drive that many other genin didn't. That thirst to prove himself, but also a drive to do whatever he could to accomplish the goal he had set before himself. Naruto was honestly looking forward to what the kid would do.

Naruto shook his head. Thoughts had been rather busy in there lately. Now wasn't the time to think about this. He'd follow Kenji's advice. He'd let the pieces fall where they may for a while and focus on the immediate things. It was a mode of operation he was familiar with, even if he was out of practice. To be the most unpredictable ninja you had to be adaptable and versatile enough to think on your feet. It was true that he'd done his best to curb a lot of things from happening in the future. Maybe it was time to step back and see what happens.

Naruto sighed and stretched before quietly leaving Obito's room. He'd get some sleep. He had a couple of things to do. They were leaving the day after tomorrow, and considering the conversation he'd just had, he wasn't sure when he'd be able to come back or create another door to this place. It was best to be prepared.

{***_***}

Obito woke to the running patter of what sounded like little feet. He opened his eyes and immediately freaked out, rolling to the opposite side of his bed and hitting his head on the wall, because of the leering faces hovering over him. Once the pain receded he was able to open his eye and observe his next prank targets as they laughed at him, one of them even rolling around on the floor with tears streaming from their eyes.

"HAHA! Akane! Did-did you see his face?!" The one on the floor, a kitsune with dark purple hair and a light layer of purple fur with pawed hands, finally began to come down from his hilarity high.

Another kit responded with a nod and a mischievous grin. She looked very similar to the one who spoke only her hair was longer and a lighter shade of purple, almost lavender, and what he could see were icy blue eyes. Her three tails flickered behind her as she sat beside Amaya, who was grinning, and another smaller kistsune, a young girl with golden brown hair, a full coating of fur, golden eyes, and two twitching tails.

"Come on, guys. You scared him half to death. I'd feel the same way if you were that close to me when I wake up." The oldest kit in the room, a bright, red haired boy with three tails and green eyes, stood and walked towards the door. "I'm gonna go watch Naruto-san train. You might want to hurry up before Kado comes. You know how he gets." With that he disappeared around the corner of the door, red tails flicking slightly.

"MORNIN OBITO!" Amaya screamed near his ear, her voice nearly bursting his ear drum and her small hands smacking heavily against his shoulder.

"Goodmorning Amaya. Are you gonna introduce me?"

"Uhuh. This is Akane." She pointed to the lavender furred kit. "Daisuke." The dark purple kit. "And this is Emi." The small golden haired kit blinked owlishly up at him before sticking a thumb in her mouth. She…was freaking _cute_.

"The one that just left is our brother, Hiro." Akane bounced up into a handstand and, with the flexibility of a born fighter, landed on her feet. "It's too early to get in trouble with Kado. I'm gonna go find some breakfast before going to watch Naruto-san train." Daisuke nodded as well before he, with a surprisingly gentle hand, grabbed Emi and walked towards the door.

"I'll be out soon, Amaya. Go on ahead." She had been watching him with a curious expression, obviously wondering if she should wait. She smiled in response.

"Okay! Daddy said he'll train with me some today so I'll be outside too!" He watched as she giggled and then stumbled her way after the others.

He sighed to himself and stretched. A yawn broke out as he stood and moved over towards the bathroom only to pause when he remembered he didn't exactly have a change of clothes with him and all of his equipment that had been sealed had been taken by Rin and Kakashi.

He thought about asking Naruto…but the idea of imposing on the man more just didn't set well with him. He'd done so much already…

He flexed his hand while looking aimlessly into the darkened bathroom. With a deliberate nod he turned and retraced his footsteps back towards the kitchen. He'd just have wash his clothes that night in the bathroom sink. They should be dry by the next day.

Besides, he was curious about Naruto's training he reasoned. It would be foolish to miss it.

He moved silently around the corner to the kitchen, only to pause in the middle of the entryway.

The person in the kitchen was _beautiful_. Or at least she was from behind. She was short with long pink hair that curled at the ends and was tied at the base of her slender neck with a leather cord. Her figure was lithe, and he could only imagine what lay beneath the large mint green haori. He watched in slightly perverse fascination as an elegant hand reached up and pulled the heavy cloth back on to the shoulder it had been slipping from.

He may have overlooked the two kitsune ears on the top of her head and the beginnings of four rather fluffy tails as they moved randomly behind her, too focused on the sudden urge to see her face.

He did, however, noticed Kenji as the old man appeared in his peripheral from an adjoining hallway. If his focus had been on anything but the gentle sway of hips and pink hair he might have noticed Kenji's expression shift from surprise to curiosity to the dangerous glee that only pranksters get when someone is about to be humiliated.

"Good morning, Kado." Kenji's voice was unnecessarily loud.

And just like that Obito's world fell apart. It crumbled and died. It had seemed so bright, full of beautiful colors as he watched unblinking and excited as the beauty turned her face to him. Then everything shattered and he knew he was crying because the she in the kitchen was definitely a _he_. A slightly feminine he, but a he none the less.

Not only was he a boy but the pink haired kitsune had the _audacity_ to have the same face, full of haughty arrogance and beauty, that his clan had.

"Goodmorning, Ji-san. I hope your night was restful."

The bastard even _sounded_ like an Uchiha.

Part of him wanted to hate him on principle; the other half was still horrified. He did his best to ignore the loud guffaws from the old man, and focused on forgiving himself for the slip.

 _It's alright, Obito. It probably happens all the time. Bet he gets confused for a pretty girl so many times he's used to it. Your reaction was only natural. It's nothing to be terrified about. It's all good._

"Who's the idiot?" He snapped out of his internal dialogue, noting the intense golden gaze of the pink ass-hat who was looking at him with a bored expression.

 _What-? What did he just say?!_

Obito leapt across the room and landed on the counter, the move surprising the kitsune as he rammed his forehead against his.

"What did you just call me you girly-looking bastard!? Huh?!" He could feel the lightening bouncing between them and smirked at the twitching eyebrow. He was right. The boy _did_ get confused for a girl often. Heh. Good to know.

"If I have to actually tell you of whom I was speaking then you've already answered my question…Idiot." Obito was gearing himself up for a no-holds-barred fight but suddenly decided to change tactics. He'd been around Uchihas and Kakashi long enough to know how to play this game.

He retreated and gave a snob like sniff before looking down his nose at the kitsune, doing his best to hold in a laugh at the confused expression.

"You know if you shaved your head you might actually be seen as a man for a change?" He paused for effect in a thinking pose. "Though the ears and tails might give it away."

Okay. He might have gone overboard. The boy's eyes shifted from a calm gold to an almost molten color, narrowing within an emotionless face.

"I'm…going to kill you." Obito didn't stay to ask how, his body moving on instinct and ducking beneath a rather too close swipe of claws.

He laughed, for some reason feeling energized as he was chased around the room and eventually bursting out the door and into the large backyard. He didn't go on the offense with the kitsune, merely stayed on the defense. He hadn't realized that they had maneuvered into a training ground until the dirt beneath him was swirling up around him as dust when he took a rolling tumble to avoid a kick to the head.

His only focus was on the movements of his opponent: duck left, running jump, double hand flip, left, right, right, left, down, twist, slide, jump.

He had just braced himself on the kitsune's arm and flipped over and behind him when the sharp sound of an unsheathing sword was heard.

"Kado." Naruto's voice was soft and firm, the sound reaching out across the quiet field and stilling the kitsune's hand.

Kado looked over his shoulder at Obito, his one narrowed eye giving a silent message before he sucked his teeth and walked back into the house. Obito could only raise an eyebrow, surprised at how fast that had went downhill without him being really aware of it.

Naruto cleared his throat.

"Don't worry too much about him. Sometimes he takes things a bit too seriously."

Heh. No kidding.

"You guys kind of interrupted a training session, you know?" Obito looked over and saw the little group of kits and Amaya who were sitting on the side lines. All of which were looking at him with a bit of awe.

"Why don't you go sit? I'll finish my workout, and then I'll train with Amaya for a bit. It should be lunch time about then so after that we'll begin working on seals. Alright?" He nodded and walked over to sit with the kits.

"Wow. I can't believe you beat Kado! No wonder he got so mad." Daisuke had crawled over and sat on his right while the others crowded around him. He raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"I didn't beat Kado. I was on the defense the whole time." Akane smiled.

"But you didn't get hit. That's as good as beating him. No one his age or below can beat him in the courts. He's really good."

"Courts?" He watched as Naruto worked through several sets of rather rigorous looking katas, his form precise and impeccably fast.

"Uhuh. The courts are where the kitsune nobles live. Old man Kenji is an elder, but he use to be the Lord."Amaya was whispering though her eyes were intensely on her father. "Lady Kioko is his daughter and she married Lord Nobio. He's pretty cool. Akane and Emi are princesses and Daisuke, Hiro, and Kado are the princes. Kado is supposed to be the next in line to be Lord."

"Supposed to be?"

"Uhuh. Kado is the first son but everyone in the courts believes that it will actually be Hiro who becomes Lord."

"Huh? Why?" That was a surprise. He was curious and a bit confused on why the succession would jump like that. The kits and Amaya merely shook their heads.

"We don't know. We only over heard it from some of the adults talking." He frowned before focusing back on Naruto.

It was really spectacular to watch Naruto move. He was unpredictable. At some points he was sharp and precise and at other moments he was like a juggernaut, forcing an invisible opponent into submission with strength alone. He was fast and adaptable as he maneuvered, graceful and flexible when he moved into an opponent's guard, smart and resourceful when at a distance.

He'd be a bloody beast in battle.

Obito watched fascinated as Naruto brought out the weapon he had been curious about, but hadn't really seen it being used. The bo staff.

Naruto held it loosely before gripping it and leaping into a series of complex movements that Obito doubted he could keep up with even if he was able to activate his sharigan. The man was practically _one_ with the weapon. Where he reached, the staff stabilized. Where he leapt, the staff arched down with sharpened accuracy. Where he dodged, the staff sliced up with its own offense.

His focus was unblinkingly on the man's movements, which was why it surprised him to see a handful of kage bunshin clones pop up without hand seals again and a blue, transparent shield appearing around the entire field in front of him and the kids.

He turned to Hiro and asked about the shield, eyes still not moving from observing as Naruto's clones slowly surrounded him.

"Naruto-san has placed seals all around the field in order to activate a shield when he wants to keep us and the house safe."

"Ah."

He watched as one clone leapt up and another slid in from behind him at the same time, his body reacting by leaping and spinning horizontally in mid-air and his staff swinging out to gut the clone above him before swinging down at the one below him. He missed that one, the clone having dodged at the last second, but the one above him disappeared in a puff a smoke.

Like a signal everything became almost a blur of bodies, blond hair, and swinging wood.

Just as suddenly as it started it was over. Naruto swung his staff expertly around in twirling arches, but this time arching waves of blue chakra had been flung out and sliced his clones so fast he could see their limbs detach before they burst into smoke. He wasn't sure what had happened at first, but after digging in his memories to a fight he had seen in the chunnin exams he realized it had been wind chakra.

Wind chakra, one of the rarest and most dangerous elements to have, had been mastered enough to be used in such a way. His sight landed on the light marks that had been left in the ground from the waves of wind chakra (he was sure those could have gone deeper, creating gouges in the earth), before looking at the stretching man who didn't even seem all that winded.

 _Wow_. Just wow.

He couldn't really fathom how no one had ever heard of Namikaze Naruto. The man was just… _too_ much of a mystery.

 **A.N**

I'll try in future chapters to either make short author's notes or to not give them at all. There's a couple question's I'd like to ask in order to make this story better and information I'd like to give that I may not actually feel up to typing within the story.

Quick Question: Are the chapters too long?

I have two ideas for a pairing…it should be really interesting when I get there so be patient and tell me who you want most when they begin to become more obvious.

Also: I want you guys to know how my Kitsune's are aging so there isn't any confusion and because I don't know if I really want to explain the complexity within the story. So…

 **Fox Hierarchy- The Court:**

Lord Nobio

Lady Kioko

The General: ?hasn't been introduced yet?

Elders: Old Man Kenji and four others that may or may not be named

Royal Family: Kado, Hiro, Daisuke, Akane, and Emi

Nobles: Satoshi and a few others that may or may not be introduced.

The Sotogawa (or everyone else) would include commoners and feuding clans outside of the royal family.

 **The kitsune's age and power are recognized by the tails:**

Kits are born looking like regular foxes.

First tail: Kits begin to exhibit human speech and gain tail by first winter.

Second Tail: Kits begin walking on two feet by second winter.

Third tail: Kits begin losing 'baby hair' or fur and gain tail between third and seventh winter.

Fourth Tail: Kits begin losing pawed fit and gain tail between tenth and twelfth winter.

Fifth Tail: Considered full adult with the full maturity of human form and gain tail between fifteenth and seventeenth winter.

Sixth tail: Begins to gain ability to alter between human and fox form. Tail is gained with the development of spiritual and physical strength.

Seventh and eighth tail: Both tails are a reflection of power development.

Ninth tail: No one has ever been heard of as having nine tails except Kurama who is considered almost God-like (or the same status as status of the sage of sixths paths) to the kitsune.

Hope that makes sense and I don't write it in an unbelievable fashion. These characters will play an important role in the future. Hope you guys like. Thanks to those who have reviewed. Hope this update was satisfying.

It's going at a relatively slow pace write now because I enjoy building mystery and developing characters.

Thanks again everyone. Hope you review.

Word Count: 10,004.


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